Leduc's only homeless shelter facing closure if new location isn't found

Leduc's only homeless shelter may close Leduc's only homeless shelter must find a new location or it will have to close. Nav Sangha has the story.

The only homeless shelter in Leduc says it only has days to find a new location — or close its doors permanently.

Leduc Hub says it provides services to about 100 homeless people in the city.

Recently the landlord for the hub's current building said its lease would not be renewed, forcing the organization to find a new location by Feb. 16.

Dozens of people showed up to a council meeting on Monday night on the topic.

The response was so large an overflow room was opened to provide seating for all the members of the public.

"What we really wanted from tonight was for city council to commit to providing uninterrupted shelter services in the city of Leduc," Brenda Reimer, board chair of the Leduc Hub Association, said on Monday evening. "If they don't act and help us do that, we will be forced to close by April 30 of this year."

Reimer says the board has been searching for a new space for more than a year.

The current space isn't working for the hub, as its focus has changed since moving into the building several years ago.

The hub first started out as an overnight, winter emergency shelter space, but has since added a number of daytime services and now runs all year.

"We offered overnight shelter, but we didn't do the drop-in services and the wraparound services that we now provide," she said.

"We're a provider for the AHS ID program. That's something that we add on to our services. So in the last couple of years that we've been in this location, what we do has changed dramatically."

That change in services is what led the hub's next-door neighbour to speak out against the organization at the meeting.

Melissa Lenos owns King Business Solutions Centre next to the Leduc Hub.

She says since the hub started offering daytime services, her building has been damaged, and she's struggled to rent out the office space inside.

"It's led to garbage. We've had drug paraphernalia left on the premises. We have video cameras around the entire building because we were having issues with things being leaned up against the building," she said. "I just renovated the building five years ago, and did a metal outside and it has been banged up, scratched up, driven into by a truck multiple times."

She says the number of people standing outside the hub makes her feel unsafe.

"I have no problem with the shelter. It's the community centre that they've created, where everyone's hanging out. And that community centre operates all the time."

"I am in the city of Leduc, I didn't think I was downtown Edmonton. And I feel that some of my clients feel that they're in a downtown, and I didn't ever want that feeling."

Leduc's Mayor Bob Young says he's part of a task force created by Leduc Hub trying to find new locations to bring to council.

"Like most municipalities, we're dealing with a homelessness issue and so this is a way that we can find a path forward," he told CTV News Edmonton on Tuesday.

"Nobody should have to spend the night out on the streets, especially during the winter. And we feel that everybody should be treated with dignity.

"I'm hoping that we are going to have a strategy later this spring that we can start to deal with this."

Leduc Hub has created an online petition to gather signatures in support of the facility.

As of Tuesday afternoon, 1,200 people had signed the petition to keep it open.

The issue will be discussed again at Leduc city council on Feb. 12.

With files from CTV News Edmonton's Sean McClune and Nav Sangha